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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 9701108" data-attributes="member: 59082">By realistic, I primarily mean differentiating what D&D calls AC into its two components: dodge/parry and damage reduction.Or to put it another way, a more realistic version of D&D would have to-hit vs. an opponent's ability to dodge, parry, or otherwise evade being actually hit, and also damage reduction as the result of armor, toughness of skin/hide, and magic.(This was inspired by re-watching Excalibur for maybe the 20th time, and the early scene when someone smites Uther in his full plate, and blood pours out...easy to hit, some damage reduction but still blood as he was prone and it might have been a crit)To-hit vs AC is a useful simplification, but has always irked me - mostly because it is a sacred cow, and wouldn't be all that hard to add realism without too much complexity. It means that a slow and full-plate-armored tank and a fast, leather-wearing duelist have similar AC, when really we should have:Tank: easy to hit, hard to cause damage Duelist: hard to hit, easy to cause damageI mean, it would be simple enough to implement in D&D without too much fuss:Defense: Base Number (10? 5?) + Dex Mod + some combination of Proficiency Bonus + Weapon Bonus (magic and/or parry bonus for specific weapons) + Class Features + Possible Feats. Sort of like AC, but replacing armor with bonuses. I started with 10 for the base, but on further thought considered that it maybe should be 5, with more bonuses than AC making up the difference (e.g. Prof), so more "swingy" than AC. Damage Reduction: A number from (probably) 0-10 for conventional armor that reduces damage from melee weapons, or the "naked to full plate" spectrum, with 1 being clothing, maybe 3 being leather, 5 being chain, 7-8 partial plate, 10 full plate; over 10 for some monsters (e.g. dragons, tarrasque, etc). Presumably crits would bypass DR, or reduce it.Now of course this would have be balanced and the kinks were worked out to find the right numbers, but with a bit of work it would provide what I'm suggesting within the context of D&D.So my question: Which RPGs--especially fantasy RPGs--already do this well, and in a way that isn't overly complex? Preferably still requiring just one role. Please give a brief explanation of how it works.</blockquote>

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